Shivani murder: R K Sharma gets life-term

Delhi, Mar 24: A fast track court today sentenced all four convicts in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case, including former Haryana cadre IPS officer R K Sharma, to life imprisonment.

The sentence was pronounced by Additional Sessions Judge R K Shastri, who had deferred it for today after hearing the three-hour-long arguments of the defence and the prosecution on the quantum of punishment on Thursday. While the prosecution demanded capital punishment for the convicts, the defence urged for a lesser punishment so that the quartet can reform themselves, adding moreover the case did not fall under the rarest of rare category.

Besides Sharma, three others, including Pradeep Sharma, Satya Prakash and Sri Bhagwan, were convicted by the court on Tuesday, bringing to an end the nine-year-old trial in the murder case of the principal correspondent of the Indian Express.

Two others -- Ved, alias Kalu, and Ved Prakash Sharma -- were, however, exonerated in the case for want of evidence.

Shivani was found murdered in her east Delhi apartment on January 23, 1999